The Queen Mother

by William Shawcross

  The Queen wrote back long letters filled with vivid descriptions of incidents and encounters on their trip as well as questions and advice about the horses back home. ‘Racing is incredible out here,’ she wrote from New Zealand; ‘tremendous enthusiasm everywhere. They all bet like mad and like their marathons of eight races at a dose!’148 She was also able to telephone, and her mother wrote to tell her how much she liked talking to her, but with the children always ‘poised to snatch the receiver’ she often failed to give her all the news.149

  In early March 1954 the Queen wrote from Melbourne expressing her excitement that she would see her children three weeks earlier than originally planned. Britannia, the new royal yacht,* was sailing to the Mediterranean to pick up the Queen and Prince Philip, and the children would be on board. She was sure that they would have changed a lot in the past six months; she was also concerned that they might not even recognize their parents.150 Her mother reassured her, with a gentle hint that it was important to try to remember what it was like to be five or six years old: ‘one really felt very deeply about things, and you may find Charles much older in a very endearing way. He is intensely affectionate & loves you & Philip most tenderly – I am sure that he will always be a very loving & enjoyable child to you both.’ She had taken Princess Anne to the Royal Chapel near Royal Lodge where the little girl had amused everyone by singing very loudly and tunelessly. ‘She is very intelligent, & very sensitive & very funny!’151

  The reunion finally took place in Tobruk, on board the Britannia. ‘The children are enchanting and it is so wonderful to be with them again!’ the Queen wrote to her mother. When she and Prince Philip came aboard, both children ‘gravely offered us their hands … partly I suppose because they were somewhat overcome by the fact that we were really there and partly because they have met so many new people recently! However the ice broke very quickly and we have been subjected to a very energetic routine and innumerable questions which have left us gasping!’152

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  ON 20 OCTOBER 1954 the Queen Mother began one of the most important journeys of her life. She embarked for New York in the Queen Elizabeth, which she had launched in 1938, to begin a three-week tour of the United States and Canada. She had been dreading the trip because she would not be accompanied by any member of the family. But she felt obliged to go because the centrepiece was to be the presentation of funds raised in memory of the King, to be spent on training in the USA of young people from the Commonwealth. In the event the trip was a personal triumph which convinced her that she did have an important part still to play in public life.

  The outbound passage was rough, but she had always been a good sailor. In New York she stayed with the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sir Pierson Dixon.* His official residence, outside Manhattan in Riverdale, was comfortable and she marvelled in particular at the abundance of American bathrooms and the endless supplies of ‘millions of towels, large medium, small, tiny, face flannels, in great profusion’ with which she was provided.153 She had a busy time seeing much of New York both formally and informally. As she had expected, at first she found it hard ‘not having any family to laugh with’.154 Concealing this, she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attended a luncheon given by the Pilgrims, the Anglo-American society, visited the American Bible Society where she was presented with a special edition of the King James Bible, and toured the United Nations headquarters in the company of the then Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld. When first shown the detailed programme for the day, which included meeting journalists at the UN, she had commented ‘How ghastly.’155 But she did not let her feelings about the press show at all. Indeed press men and women, a tough crowd, praised her for treating them well.156

  She was guest of honour at the Charter Dinner of Columbia University, which she had visited with the King in 1939, and she received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. A ball was given in her honour by the Associated Commonwealth Societies of New York, and she had a private lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt, at Hyde Park – another echo of the memorable 1939 visit. It was a touching reunion of two women who had each contributed enormously to her country’s wartime effort. There was fun to be had as well. She went to see the popular musical The Pajama Game, loved the tunes and wished Princess Margaret had been there.157 She ‘adored’ the Empire State Building158 and visited a children’s day-care centre and a home for Aged British Men and Women. On 3 November the Mayor of New York gave her a luncheon and that night the English Speaking Union a dinner. It was at this formal occasion that the cheque honouring the King’s memory was presented to her.

  She found the formal dinners the worst part of the American trip. She hated dining on a dais in full evening dress and tiara, stared at by the world under ‘a terrible glare of television & film lights’. Eating in public ‘really is a nightmare, & they give one gigantic bits of meat, bigger than this sheet of paper, practically raw, & then instead of gravy, they pour a little blood over it. Oh boy.’159 At the English Speaking Union dinner her lady in waiting observed that she only toyed with her food, and when she returned to the Dixons’ house, she had a plate of scrambled eggs on a tray, enjoying the informal picnic infinitely more.160

  A shopping expedition made to various New York department stores on the afternoon of Friday 29 October was intended to be private but everywhere she went she was pursued by packs of relentless British journalists and crowds of excited American women. In Saks Fifth Avenue, she, her lady in waiting Jean Rankin, the manager and three Secret Service men ‘made a sharp & cunning dash into the lift, which we stopped between floors, & held a council of war’. They decided to sneak up to the top floor but, as they stepped out there, ‘a gate opened opposite us, & a horde of ladies poured out, shouting in triumph. We flew for shelter to “Ladies shirts”, & inside a sort of gazebo of police we tried to do a little shopping.’ This proved impossible, so they ‘decided to make a dash for the ground floor … It was all so like a Marx brothers film.’161

  President Eisenhower, who had been elected to the White House in 1952, sent his private plane to bring her to Washington where she had another full week of formal appearances, visits and meals, including visits to the White House, the National Gallery of Art and tours in Virginia and Maryland, both of which she found ‘delightful’.162 She found life in the Eisenhower White House stiffer than it had been with the Roosevelts, and surrounded with more protocol. But, according to the British Ambassador, Sir Roger Makins, the Eisenhowers took evident pleasure in entertaining her as an old friend.163 The Makinses were informal too and at least once they all had a midnight supper on the stairs of the Ambassador’s residence.164 Despite such informality, security was much tighter than in 1939. Her Secret Service people were just like nannies who, she told the Queen, ‘look after one, & look also faintly disapproving or rather loving. I’d like to have one or two to bring home.’165

  In Virginia she delighted in the kindness and the southern drawls – ‘Miiiighty kind, mam, they say, taking longer than you can believe to say “mighty”.’166 Altogether, she was delighted with her trip. She found Americans charming, courteous and reassuringly old fashioned. She was also moved by the fact that many people recalled her 1939 visit with the King, and although they did not quite understand how the monarchy worked, ‘they are prepared to look kindly on the family.’167

  From Washington, she flew to Ottawa on Friday 12 November. The Canadian part of her trip was briefer and more demure than that to the States, but it was happy nonetheless – ‘she was on home soil’, reported the High Commissioner.168 Her time was spent mostly in Ottawa and, among her engagements, she opened the Bytown bridges. She drove through the city, visited City Hall and went to a performance of Whiteoaks at the Canadian Repertory Theatre, held in aid of the Canadian Mothercraft Society of which she was patron. (She was aware that such voluntary organizations needed visible royal support if they were to survive at a time when most medical care was being publicly funded.) The visit rekindl
ed affection for Canada, the Commonwealth country to which she returned most often in the remaining years of her life.

  On the afternoon of 17 November the Queen Mother flew back to New York to embark in the Queen Mary. She gave a private dinner party on board that night and the next morning, after a leave-taking ceremony in the Verandah Grill, the ship set sail. The voyage home was much calmer than that on the way out.

  Those who had witnessed the trip were in no doubt about its success. Senior British officials abroad would not be expected to criticize members of the Royal Family. But the enthusiasm of their reports on the way Queen Elizabeth carried out her duties was clearly not feigned. From Ottawa, the High Commissioner reported home that the Queen Mother had done an immense amount to strengthen ties between Britain and Canada.169 Similarly from Washington Roger Makins enthused that she had been ‘flawless’. The informal moments – the visit to the theatre, sightseeing, the shopping expedition, her readiness to stop and talk to people – had endeared her to the American public. Her warmth was ‘so foreign to the copybook idea of Royalty in the American mind’ that she had captivated everybody.170 Makins offered a proper cost–benefit analysis: ‘One of our most valuable assets in the world to-day is the fund of American goodwill toward Great Britain … I can think of no single action, calculated or uncalculated, which could have made a more substantial contribution to that fund of goodwill than the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.’171

  Edward L. Bernays, one of the founders of public relations in America, came to a similar conclusion, writing to The Times and the New York Times that Americans had expected the Queen Mother, like other British people, to be ‘stuffy, snobbish, snooty and unapproachable’. But in her they discovered to their delight ‘warmth, sincerity, frankness, democratic bearing and interest in American institutions and a vigor that no one had imagined a Queen could have … The Queen Mother showed Americans that there is every reason to admit that they like the English.’172

  Probably her most cherished response came in a private letter from Winston Churchill in which he praised the success of her visit: ‘The maintenance, and continuous improvement, of friendship between the English-speaking peoples, and more especially between these Islands and the great North American Democracies, is the safeguard of the future. Your Majesty has made a notable contribution to this end, and I think it is fitting that the Ministers of the Crown should be among the first to recognise it.’173

  She had enjoyed the trip much more than she had expected. And she realized, perhaps for the first time, what a strong impact she could have as an ambassador for Britain. Her success stimulated her; now she could see that she could play a useful part in promoting both the monarchy and Britain herself in overseas visits. In the years to come foreign travel – to France, to Africa, to Australasia and to Canada again – would be a very important part of her work.

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  IN AUTUMN 1955 Princess Margaret had to face the second crisis in her relationship with Peter Townsend. On 21 August she turned twenty-five and so, under the Royal Marriages Act, she was free to marry without the permission of the sovereign.

  The last two years had not been entirely bleak. The Princess was vivacious and, if moody, also witty and often charming. She did not want for admirers. One of them, Billy Wallace,* confessed to Queen Elizabeth that for seven years he had been ‘a devoted, if unsatisfactory, admirer’ of the Princess.174 Others courted the young Princess too and she was seen around town, always chic and sometimes carrying an elegant cigarette holder, with such men as Colin Tennant, son of Lord Glenconner who had been one of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon’s admirers, Dominic Elliot† and Mark Bonham Carter.

  At the beginning of 1955 Princess Margaret had made a successful tour of the Caribbean. She liked the rhythms of life there and her enjoyment showed; a Nassau paper commented that she resembled her mother in her warmth, humanity, simplicity and interest in people.175 But, as the end of her two-year waiting period neared, it became clear that she and Townsend would not be left in peace to make their decision. Press speculation increased, with some papers being supportive, others merely aggressively engaged. ‘Come on Margaret! Please make up your mind,’ shrilled the Daily Mirror just before her birthday, which she spent quietly at Balmoral.

  It was painful for her, for her mother and for the rest of the Royal Family. The Queen Mother did not find it easy to discuss intimate matters of the heart. Sometimes, as in many such emotional crises, letters were easier. In early September, she wrote warmly to her daughter about her dilemma:

  My darling Margaret, I sometimes wonder whether you quite realise how much I hate having to point out the more difficult and occasionally horrid problems.

  It would be so much easier to gloss them over, but I feel such a deep sense of responsibility as your only living parent, and I seem to be the only person who can point them out, and you can imagine what anguish it causes me.

  I suppose that every mother wants her child to be happy, and I know what a miserable and worrying time you are having, torn by so many difficult constitutional and moral problems.

  I think about it and you all the time, and because I have to talk over the horrid things does not mean that I don’t suffer with you, or that one’s love is any less. I have wanted to write this for a long time, as it is something which might sound embarrassing if said.

  Your very loving Mummy176

  Princess Margaret replied at once: ‘Darling Mummie, Your letter did help so much. Thank you for writing it – as you said it’s easier to write than say – but please don’t think that because I have blown up at intervals when we’ve discussed the situation, that I didn’t know how you felt. I knew only too well that you were feeling for one tremendously.’ She went on to say that there were very few people to whom she could talk about her feelings, and that it was very difficult to make such decisions alone. ‘Oh dear, I meant to tell you how much your letter meant, & I’ve only poured out a lot of complaints. But it did, and you will now know that I know what you are feeling when we next talk.’177

  She told her mother that Peter Townsend was coming over from Brussels in mid-October for them to meet and talk. Before he arrived, Queen Elizabeth talked to her daughter on the telephone from the Castle of Mey – she felt she had to be guarded ‘because one feels that so many people are listening most eagerly’. But, she then wrote, ‘I did want to say, darling, that I know what a great decision you have to make fairly soon, & to beg you to look at it from every angle, and to be quite sure that you don’t marry somebody because you are sorry for them. Marriage is such a momentous step and so intimate, and it is far, far better to be a little cruel & say “No” to marriage unless you are quite quite sure.’ She thought that some people made wonderful friends and confidants but less successful husbands. ‘Poor Peter has had a ghastly time, but I am sure that he would agree that a marriage could not be truly happy unless both were prepared to face the extraordinary difficulties with clear consciences. Oh I do feel for you darling – it is so hard that you should have to go through so much agony of mind.’178

  For Princess Margaret, the way had seemed plain. She believed that now she had turned twenty-five, should she still wish to marry Peter Townsend, the government, and by extension Parliament, would allow her marriage to go ahead without further ado, as the Royal Marriages Act permitted. It was not so simple.

  Anthony Eden, Winston Churchill’s successor as prime minister, was himself divorced, but he could not or would not do battle on behalf of the Princess. After taking soundings among his Cabinet colleagues he indicated that, if asked for advice, the government could not recommend that the marriage should go ahead. And if the Princess decided to marry nonetheless, it was clear that Parliament, which under the Royal Marriages Act would have to give its permission, would not allow the third in line to the throne to enter into a marriage which the Church would not recognize. She would have to renounce her royal status.179

  On 26 October, The Times published a f
ierce editorial in which it declared that, if she chose Townsend, she would have to abandon her royal status and she would be letting down the Queen, the symbol of people’s ‘better selves’.180

  The external pressures upon Princess Margaret were immense. So were the internal conflicts. She was in love but her mother had always instructed her children, as Lady Strathmore had instructed hers, that duty came first. A convinced Christian, the Princess was of her time and she believed in the sanctity of marriage. She was also intensely loyal to her sister and to the institution in which she had grown up. She was well aware of the agony of her mother and father, and the consternation in the country, when King Edward VIII had insisted on marrying a divorced woman.

  In this crisis, it is clear from the evidence, her mother and her sister both hoped above all for the Princess’s happiness; they were both careful not to push her either way. But all three of them understood how hard it would be for her if she had to renounce the whole basis of her life and change her close relationships within the Royal Family. She made up her mind.

  According to the Princess herself, when she and Townsend met shortly afterwards at Clarence House, they both decided at the same moment that ‘It’s not possible. It won’t do.’ The Princess went to inform the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher, of her decision and he responded at once, ‘What a wonderful person the Holy Spirit is.’181

  The Princess and Townsend then worked together on a statement for her to release to the press. This went through several drafts and the final version began, ‘I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.’ She had been aware that, subject to her renouncing her rights of succession, she could have contracted a civil marriage, ‘But, mindful of the Church’s teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others.’ The statement, on which the Queen Mother also gave her advice, went on to say, ‘I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend.’182 The statement was issued on 31 October 1955. The Daily Mirror headline was ‘DUTY BEFORE LOVE’.